I'm not really sure why Russia wants to be anti-western anyways. They don't really have anything to gain by being an antagonistic enemy of western countries while they'd have much to gain by working with them.
Like, why side with Iran and Syria and these other tyrannical shitholes? I can understand them being antagonistic about missile defenses and Georgia and former Soviet countries, but I don't get antagonism for the sake of antagonism.
Russia's government is, for the moment, at a midpoint between autocracy and democracy. This is still close enough to autocracy to alienate the west and far enough from democracy that those in power (See: V. Putin) fear losing what they have.
The reason that Russia's government is trying to be anti-west is to hold off the march of progress and political reform that has been slowly but surely spreading across the entire planet for the past few centuries. It's almost like a disease, one that you can't really ever get rid of once it's in. You can slow it, but not stop it, and when governments fall to it they tend to do so like dominoes.
Thus, Russia's government has no choice but to side with utterly tyrannical nations, because siding with democratic nations ensures that those who benefit from Russia's remaining autocratic tendencies fall from power even faster than they already are.